1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire harness connector, and more particularly to a terminal retainer construction which is fittingly interlockable with a rear portion of a connector housing to prevent rearward dislodgment of terminal members which are inserted into terminal compartments in a wire harness connector housing.
2. Prior Art
For fixing in position the terminal members which are inserted into terminal compartments in a connector housing, it has been the general practice to provide flexible or resilient retainer arms integrally on the inner wall surfaces of each terminal compartment, which resilient retainer arms engage the terminal members upon insertion of the terminal members into the terminal compartment to prevent dislocation or dislodgment of the terminal members. Recently, a proposal has been made to provide a terminal retainer which is fittingly interlockable with a rear portion of the connector housing to prevent dislocation or dislodgment of the terminal members securely in cooperation with or in place of the above-mentioned resilient retainer arms.
FIG. 7 illustrates such a prior art terminal retaining structure, which is provided with support projections d on the inner surfaces of opposing wall portions c of each terminal compartment b in a connector housing a. Tapered drive surfaces e are formed on the rear side of each one of the support projections d, while temporary or provisional locking projections f and main locking projections g are provided in relatively rearward and forward positions on the outer wall surfaces with respect to the position of the housing a.
Indicated at h is a frame-like terminal retainer with resilient locking arms j and resilient retainer arms k extending forwardly from its frame-like body i respectively onto and into a connector housing a to be connected therewith.
The terminal retainer h is firstly joined with the housing a in a provisionally interlocked state where the resilient locking arms j are in interlocking engagement with the provisional locking projections f. In this state, the resilient retainer arms k are extended linearly forward without interfering with a terminal member l inserted into the terminal compartment b.
Nextly, as shown in FIG. 8, the terminal retainer h is pushed in further to bring the retainer into a finally interlocked state where the resilient locking arms j are in interlocking engagement with the main locking projections g. In this state, the fore ends k.sub.1 of the resilient retainer arms k which are abutted against the tapered drive surface e are thereby bent inward to grip a terminal press-on wire portion m, and located behind support projections n and o of the terminal member l to prevent its dislodgment in the rearward direction.
In the above-described prior art terminal retainer, the resilient locking arms j which are located on the outer surfaces of the peripheral wall portions of the connector housing a are arranged to flex outward and exposed on the outer side in the locked position, so that they have possibilities of being deformed or unlocked by an external force. Besides, the provisional and main locking projections f and g which are provided on the peripheral wall of the connector housing to engage the resilient locking arms j successively. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an interval of a substantial length between the provisional and main locking projections f and g for engagement with the resilient locking arms j. This makes it difficult to provide a connector housing or a terminal retainer of a compact form.